Midland High boys soccer coach Warren Cottle didn’t mince words when he said it wasn’t too hard to restart the President’s Cup after a two-year hiatus.

The annual soccer tournament in Midland centered around Grande Communications Stadium didn’t happen in 2013 and 2014 because the Lee and Midland High squads were playing in the nine-team District 2-5A. The size of the district and the University Interscholastic League’s limits on games made it hard for tournament organizers to find quality teams to give Midland ISD squads good competition before the long district campaign began.

After realignment last February, the wheels began to turn on re-starting the tourney and a year later the tournament has been reborn as a boys only tournament, featuring an all West Texas lineup. Teams from Lubbock, Amarillo and El Paso, along with Midland and Odessa will compete in this year’s event.

The three-day round-robin tournament begins at 2 p.m. today.

“With the relationships we had with all the teams from out of town, it was easy to rebuild,” Cottle said. “It was really sad we lost it for two years in a row, but it’s exciting to be able to host it and people can be able to come and watch.”

Cottle said teams were interested in returning for three main reasons:

- Grande Communications Stadium is centrally located and is the site of the Region I-6A Tournament.

- The schedule allowed teams to play one game in a day and not play a district opponent.

- Hotel prices in Midland have stabilized.

“That’s eased up a bit, and that’s made it a whole lot easier,” Cottle said of the hotel room rates. “I think mostly it’s just word of mouth. Most of the teams, they like meeting here.”

Cottle said the tournament will use a points system to determine an overall champion, and plus he said not scheduling teams against district opponents was something that the organizing committee worked hard on to entice teams.

“That’s always been a major selling point, nobody wants to run into a team they will see in district,” said Cottle, who will miss Friday’s and Saturday’s games because of a death in the family. “Our President’s Cup is geared more toward being player friendly.”

Follow Len on Twitter: @Len_Hayward_MRT

PRESIDENT’S CUP

Thursday-Saturday

Note: All games at Grande Communications Stadium unless otherwise noted